Healthcare: What happens if Republicans take back Congress?

"President Barack Obama's effort to overhaul the nation's health care system is expected to clear its last committee hurdle Tuesday - but almost certainly without the strong bipartisan endorsement he and some moderate Republicans have sought. The Senate Finance Committee is expected to vote on a plan that would require nearly all Americans to get coverage, while barring insurers from denying people policies because of pre-existing conditions and imposing excise taxes on insurers' most expensive plans. The committee is the last of five congressional panels considering the measure. Once Finance is done, Senate leaders and the White House will merge the proposal with another one written by the Senate Health Committee over the summer, creating one bill likely to be considered by lawmakers later this month. Three House of Representatives committees also have finished writing bills, and those, too, will merge into one. Final House action also is expected in late October. In the Finance Committee, while virtually all 13 Democrats are expected to back the proposal, only one of the 10 Republicans, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, is viewed as a possible supporter."

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics/story/1278971.html

Any healthcare bill will be passed with little or no Republican votes. All the proposed healthcare bills are being drafted so they don't take effect until at least 2013, i.e., the actual effects (taxes, fees, penalties, mandates, etc.) won't be felt until Obama no longer has to run for reelection.

Put aside the question of why the solution to a so called "crisis" is not going to be put into effect immediately.

Ask yourself what happens if Republicans take back one or both houses of Congress in 2010 or 2012, and simply refuse to fund.